New Morning Glory For Driesell

Ex-maryland Coach Starting Over At James Madison

January 08, 1989|By William C. Rhoden, N.Y. Times News Service.

HARRISONBURG, VA. — It is 6 a.m., but a thick veil of darkness still hangs over the central Shenandoah Valley. At a truckstop along Route 11, blinking red lights on rows of rumbling 18-wheelers dot the night while their drivers shiver through an early morning chill.

This is normally not a time associated with college athletes or athletics; this is usually the heart of their down time after tough practices or grueling games.

But a few hundred yards up the road, lights are burning brightly inside the James Madison University Convocation Center. Upon entering the arena, one hears the familiar sound of sneakers squeaking on a slick wooden floor and the staccato thumping of bouncing basketballs.

Charles G. Driesell, 58, the Dukes` first-year coach, stands at midcourt, arms folded, supervising the predawn practice that he initiated in October. He had done this once before, about 31 years ago, as the junior varsity coach at Granby High in Norfolk, Va.

``The varsity had the floor from 3 to 6 and I would have had to practice from 6 to 8,`` Driesell recalled. ``I just didn`t want to keep the kids up that late.``

It`s ironic, and perhaps symbolic of a career that has come full circle, that 31 years and more than 500 college victories later, Lefty Driesell once again finds himself working before dawn. Only now, an ocean filled with triumph and tragedy separate the man`s past from his present. Even the rationale for predawn practice has shifted: back then it was to protect the players; now it`s to motivate them.

``It gets them up in the morning,`` Driesell said last week after his team had lost by 19 points to Virginia Tech. ``A lot of kids cut class because they oversleep. In college, a big problem you have is guys staying up late at night, playing cards, going out with girls or whatever they do at night. This way, if they`ve got to be at practice at 6 in the morning, they`re not going to stay up that late. They can`t. They`ve got to come to practice.``

As recently as four years ago, it would have been farfetched, if not unthinkable, that a coach of Driesell`s stature would even consider joining an unheralded program like James Madison`s, much less be up at 6 a.m. to coach it.

Driesell is 11th on the list of winningest active coaches and has had just one losing season in 26 campaigns. The Dukes, on the other hand, have had just one winning season in the past four years, and the potential for growth seemed minimal at best.

But the chain of events that forced Driesell out of coaching and into an invisible administrative position at the University of Maryland ultimately forged a marriage of wants and needs.

As JMU President Ronald Carrier explained: ``Here we were with a strategy and we needed a coach. Here was Lefty Driesell, who wanted to coach.

``Ninety percent of the coaches who won 524 ball games and who were being paid what he was being paid would have enough ego satisfaction to say, `I`m not going to Harrisonburg, Virginia, and build a basketball program.` But here was a guy who wanted to coach.``

If the hiring of Driesell sparked excitement, his arrival has stirred a sense of anticipation that has not been felt here since the 1982-83 season when the Dukes, under Lou Campanelli, made their third consecutive trip to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.

A day after the university announced that Driesell would be the new coach, more than 150 reporters and television crewmen found their way through the Allegheny Mountains to this medium-sized campus in central Virginia for Driesell`s first news conference.

In addition, 500 students showed up at the Convocation Center to catch a glimpse of their new coach and cheer wildly as he dangled tantalizing morsels of a dream in front of them.

``Villanova won a national championship, Georgetown won a national championship,`` Driesell said, ``and both of these schools have fewer students than JMU.``

For a number of observers, the more interesting aspect of Driesell`s presence here is not the promise of good times that accompanied his arrival but the philosophy behind his selection.

Indeed, for all of the cheers and increased booster support, Carrier had to explain the rationale for hiring a coach who had been associated with one of the most publicized tragedies in recent college basketball history.

Three seasons ago, Len Bias, the All-American from Maryland, died from cocaine intoxication two days after being chosen as the second player in the National Basketball Association college draft.

Bias` death was followed by a succession of rigorous investigations, including one by the university that found a pattern of neglect within the basketball program pertaining to the athletes` academic well-being.